My cure for today's news: I lean over handlebars, legs churn, heart thumps. Breathe in. Breathe out. Wind whispers through helmet holes. I steer my own course, sunshine warming my back, with song sparrows and chickadees as my soundtrack. Until the sirens. They come up from behind, a rising scream. I jump the bike onto the sidewalk to make way as two cruisers and an ambulance roar past. The wailing crescendos, then falls, shattering summer morning's calm, and the news images return: fire, flood, climate crisis, Delta variant, riots. A storm is coming. I turn and pedal fast for home.
Ian Owens is a self-employed engineer who writes for the fun of it, mostly about self-propelled travel and Vikings. His first book, called "Riding the Big One," has both. Find Ian online at ianowens.com.